Lawyer's Book Helped Dozens of Abandoned Pets Get New Homes

A Kansas lawyer’s fictional book about an animal shelter’s program of placing abandoned pets in temporary homes for the Christmas holidays has helped dozens of homeless cats and dogs find new families.

Inspired by Greg Kincaid’s book, A Dog Named Christmas, which was made into a Hallmark Hall of Fame television movie after it was published in 2008, animal shelters throughout the country began implementing such programs in real life, the Kansas City Star reports.

In Kincaid’s home town of Olathe, Kan., the local shelter has sent more than 20 dogs and cats home for the holidays, beginning in 2008, and most have been permanently adopted by their host families.

Kincaid, 54, serves as a divorce mediator. He, his wife and their two dogs live in a rural area near Olathe.

In a bio page on his website, Kincaid explains that he grew up on that farm, reading voraciously and spending time with his dog.

“In 1982, I started to work at a large corporate law firm. It was often tedious work and I wasn’t particularly skilled at the nuances of corporate law. Needing an escape, I returned to my old friends. I never had a book far away. I started writing my own stories,” he recounts.

Eventually, he returned with his family to their farm, and he began working with troubled children who, contrary to his own childhood experience, seemingly rarely if ever had a book in their hands. His own children, to whom he had been reading and telling stories all their lives, urged him to begin writing down his tales.

That led Kincaid to author a number of books, eventually including the best-selling A Dog Named Christmas.

“Today I remain busy working at my law practice, writing and advocating for childhood literacy and a more humane world for our furry friends,” he writes.